Apparatus for manufacturing wafers

Abstract

Wafers are produced by guiding a sheet of bread having friable outer crusts and a relatively soft center through wafer forming apparatus. The apparatus includes a pair of rolls, one of said rolls, i.e., a cutting roll having one or more wafer forming recesses or cavities therein and the other roll being a pressure roll which operates in rolling engagement with the cutting roll. As the sheet of bread is introduced into the nip formed between the two rolls the pressure roll acts to press the bread into the cavity or cavities on the cutting roll and into engagement with the edges of the cavity or cavities to cut wafers from the sheet of bread. Each cavity is configured to have a bottom surface which rises as a gradually tapering wall to a cutting edge which is coterminious with the surface of the cutting roll. Continuous production of wafers is possible with the edges of the wafers being sharply defined, free of undesirable crumbling and devoid of fracture lines, all of which otherwise render the wafers commercially objectionable. The wafers may be scored or impressed with a design in their surface as they are produced.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. Apparatus for manufacturing wafers from a sheet of bread having opposing friable outer crusts enclosing a center which is softer than said crusts comprising, wafer forming means including a rotatable forming roll having a surface with at least one wafer former formed in said surface, said wafer former comprising a cavity formed below the surface of said forming roll, said cavity having a bottom portion with a side wall extending from said bottom portion and terminating at a cutting surface, said sidewall being configured as a pair of truncated cones one sitting on top of the other, said side wall being tapered at an angle of between 45 and 70 degrees to said cutting surface, a rotatable pressure roll positioned in rolling engagement with the surface of said forming roll, means for guiding the sheet of bread between said forming roll and said pressure roll so said forming roll and said pressure roll are rotated, said pressure roll acting to press the sheet of bread into said cavity and onto said cutting surface to thereby form and cut a wafer from said sheet, said wall of said former acting to engage and support the edge of said wafer which is produced as said wafer is cut to thereby substantially preclude crumbling of said wafer edge during cutting on said cutting surface. 
     
     
       2. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 including an impressing element positioned in said cavity for impressing a surface of said wafer. 
     
     
       3. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 including an humidifier for preconditioning a plurality of sheets of said bread, means for advancing said sheets serially to said wafer forming means to thereby form and cut wafers from each of said sheets with remnants of bread being produced as said wafers are cut from said sheets, and separator means for receiving said wafers and said remnants from said wafer forming means for separating said wafers from said remnants. 
     
     
       4. Apparatus as set forth in claim 3 wherein said forming roll has a plurality of water formers thereon. 
     
     
       5. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein the bottom portion of each said cavity is situated at a distance below the surface of said forming roll corresponding generally to the thickness of said sheet of bread. 
     
     
       6. Apparatus as set forth in claim 4 including cutting means spanning the space between adjacent wafer formers to cut remnant sections of said sheet of bread. 
     
     
       7. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said cutting surface surrounds said cavity and is 0.002-0.003 inches wide.